I'M GOING TO PET A WORM TODAY

In her first book for children, Levy offers an outstanding collection of 39 poems, most of them about the natural world as it might be observed by a child. Whether painting a precise verbal picture of a robin drinking (``From a tiny little chip/in the middle of a step/where a thimbleful of water/from the sprinkler collects...''), spinning an image that's part humor and part wonderment (``Sunset mixed this recipe:/Orange and grape and raspberry...Too, too tempting/Don't you think/All that orange and/All that pink...Night came sniffing/Like a pup;/licked it/liked it/lapped it up!''), or mimicking pecking birds (``We split the seeds/We pick the pits/We poke about for favorites...''), the poet understands just what will amuse, sees it with a clear eye, and presents it in a fresh voice whose clarity and natural, impeccably graceful cadences recall Valerie Worth's brief poems. A splendid debut, in a graciously open format enhanced by Himler's delicately understated drawings. (Poetry. 5-10)